Why we have chosen ladybirds
for our brand

As far as offspring is concerned, female ladybirds are very diligent. They lay between 500 and 800 tiny yellow oval eggs. They then look for a good place in the middle of an aphid colony to guarantee enough food. Their hungry larvae hatch after just a few days, eat aphids until fully fed and then pupate for about ten days. Only then the metamorphosis takes place and the grey-blue larvae become dotted ladybirds.
Two ladybird generations hatch every year. The last generation hibernates in ground litter, hollow tree stumps or piles of stone.

Everybody knows the red ladybird with the black spots. But did you know that there are between 80 and 100 different species in Val Venosta? No matter if they have 22 spots or no spots at all, if they have a square pattern or white spots or if they are red, yellow, orange or black – all these ladybirds have one thing in common: They are welcome in orchards and everywhere else as well!

If an apple producer finds many ladybirds in his orchard, he has every good reason to celebrate because more than half of all ladybird species mainly feed on aphids. They eat up to 100 per day and even larval ladybirds do so. So a ladybird eats tens of thousands of aphids throughout its about one-year life.
Other ladybird species are specialized in scale insects or red spider mites and still others are predators of codling moths and geometer moths. Ladybirds are important ecological allies and help to reduce the use of pesticides.

The ladybird is probably one of the most popular insects. It is considered to be a lucky symbol in many countries and Val Venosta’s apple producers have even chosen it as their mascot and brand. Not for nothing!
The ladybird does not only look much sweeter than most of other bugs but also is a particularly useful insect. The next station tells you why.

Val Venosta’s apple producers do everything to make ladybirds feel at ease in their orchards. They offer them numerous flowering plants because many ladybird species need pollen to reproduce. Flower strips between or around the rows of trees are an ideal habitat for these useful insects.

Many people think that the number of spots indicates the age of the ladybirds but that’s not true. The number of spots only depends on the species.
The seven-spot ladybird is the most common and best known and is the classic lucky symbol.